Immanuel Kant

Early Life and Works

Kant was educated in his native city, tutored in several families, and after 1755 lectured at the Univ. of Königsberg in philosophy and various sciences. He became professor of logic and metaphysics in 1770 and achieved wide renown through his writings and teachings. His early work, reflecting his studies of Christian Wolff and G. W. Leibniz, was followed by a period of great development culminating in the Kritik der reinen Vernunft (1781, tr. Critique of Pure Reason ). This work inaugurated his so-called critical period—the period of his major writings. The more important among these writings were Prolegomena zu einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik (1783, tr. Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics ), Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten (1785, tr. Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals ), Kritik der praktischen Vernunft (1788, tr. Critique of Practical Reason ), and Kritik der Urteilskraft (1790, tr. Critique of Judgment ). His Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft (1793, tr. Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone ) provoked a government order to desist from further publications on religion.